this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2023
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Technology

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US Congress Breaks Ground on Space-Based Solar Power: A Small but Significant Victory for Space Exploration Enthusiasts

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They did a test with microwave to transmit energy from space to Earth. There is some serious drawback in doing it via microwave though, so I'm curious on how they'll transmit a huge amount of energy without heating up or causing residual damage to the environment.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Yeah seems like there's a general thermodynamics problem with sending a bunch of energy through the atmosphere

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And ppl think wind turbines are deadly to birds, imagine a flock flying through a trillion watt microwave beam.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_gun

The sun gun or heliobeam is a theoretical orbital weapon, which makes use of a concave mirror mounted on a satellite, to concentrate sunlight onto a small area at the Earth's surface, destroying targets or killing through heat.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Ion canon ready